One of our key objectives is to celebrate local creative talent. Every month we work with a local photographer and ask them to document our events. Our June event, BROKEN, with Akiko Kobayashi in June was captured by award winning graphic, editorial and digital designer, Adam Wilson. 

Visit Adam’s website to find our more about his beautiful work and read on to find our more about his passion for photography. 

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m actually a senior designer here at Whitespace where today’s event was held. I’ve lived and worked in Edinburgh for 11 years now. Originally thought I’m from the north east of England, this is where I studied Graphic Design, specifically newspaper and magazine design. I always knew I wanted to pursue a creative career, and at this time my college was really well connected in London which seemed to offer a world of opportunity for young designers.

 What inspired you to first pick up a camera?

I’d spent a lot of time editing other photographers work, as this would ultimately end up in my editorial design work. Just looking at the technical information embedded into the files themselves got me sort of hooked, I didn’t know what an F stop was, or the faintest clue how ISO worked but I had this information to work back from. I knew how to do post production on images way before I could take a picture. Following some money I won through a Threadless Tshirt print, I decided to buy my first Nikon D40 and shortly after that my first Sigma Prime lens.

 What subjects are you most drawn to?

As a designer I’m always more interested in what you leave that makes an image rather than what you put in. Whether it’s food, people, travel, scenery, I’m always trying to find a way to simplify the image. I take pictures of what comes my way, I try not to plan too much.

 What is your favourite gear you’re using at the moment? 

I stripped it way back a few years ago. I now just have a Fuji X-pro1, a 35mm and 18mm lenses. Honestly a simple leather wrist strap is one of the best things over bought, purely for the reason this stops me visibly having a camera round my neck. People aren’t too bothered when you sneak in a quick picture this way, you get away with a lot more when you don’t look like a photographer.

Can you list a few of your favourite creative resources?

Picture wise I still trawl Flickr, Instagram, and VSCO. I get more design inspiration from It’s Nice That and Deezen. Tech wise I get a lot from The Verge and WIRED. More than anything recently though I’ve been enjoying a lot of the shows to come with the chanel Viceland. The series Huang’s World written, presented, and produced by Eddie Huang has been the most informative programme about food, travel, politics and much more I’ve seen. Its inspired a certain wanderlust.

Please tell us the story behind one of your favourite photographs.

This is actually a photo from my 30th birthday. Many pictures came out of that night but this particular one of myself and my Dad is one of my most cherished pictures. Its one of the last pictures we have together. He looks so dapper in this too, but he did at every party.

My friend Laura took this on her phone… I’ve thanked her countless times for capturing it.